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Wednesday, 30 May 2012

A Twelfth Century HOTT Campaign

This post is a dump of one from the old Stronghold, and was written by Ruarigh Dale who was proposing to convert a solo DBA campaign set in he 12th century to being an HOTT campaign instead. These are his thoughts and lists.

I actually thought it was interesting that he has adopted the same approach I use for my Epic 40K armies - 12AP of compulsory troops backed up by a free pick from a fairly comprehensive list of additional ones.

I have listed a core force of 12 AP that must be taken and then the options list the maxima allowed of the different troop types. The aim of the core army is to retain the flavour of the historical army and the options allow for fantasy elements as well as the more mundane troop types. Also, if anyone has the names for the appropriate kings or generals, please let me know. It is always more fun to think that your knights have just trampled King Bill of Braintree into the mud than just saying that the enemy lost a blade element.

Notes:
Svein Asleifarson was probably not really a hero but Orkneyinga saga has a large proportion written from his perspective. Judith Jesch has argued that he may have instigated the writing of those parts. This automatically makes him a hero in my book.

Saint Magnus was murdered in 1116. He may be fielded as a Magician if the desired effect is the demoralisation (bespelling) of the enemy by his appearance or as a Paladin if the goal is to motivate your own side. Once he has been defined as one troop type he must remain as that until he dies in battle and is replaced. This note applies to all other saints in these lists too.

Players who field the "sneaky Viking" Lurker must also provide a piece of bad going with an outside toilet on it.

The Selkie is a seal-person.

Burners are a traditional part of the Viking saga. Orkneyinga saga has numerous examples of people being burnt in their homes.

This list does not include berserkers because I cannot remember any mention of them in Orkneyinga saga at this period.

Notes:
The classification of Highlanders as Beasts just seems to make sense. It is not intended as a slur, and those who object could always field them as Warband. I fancied a change.

The Water Lurker is a Kelpie or water horse. This critter would come onto dry land in the form of a horse, lure people onto its back and then dive back into the water, thus drowning them. Or it might just be a sheepdog swimming about!

The notes for St Magnus also apply to Saint Kentigern, who was praised for granting victory to the Scots at Renfrew against Somerled, Lord of the Isles.

The Sneaker element sounds like borderers to me.

The Campaign.This is played on a standard 6-player map with standard campaign rules or you could construct an area movement map of the areas depicted. You should note that large parts of this campaign involve sea crossings.

Each player chooses their army composition at start and must stick with that composition unless elements are lost in battle or sea crossings. When it comes to replacing elements, players must first add elements from the core troops to make the army up to the numbers specified in the core lists before choosing from the optional lists.

For solo play, I use simple diplomacy rules as found on the Fanaticus site. Each army rolls a die for its relationship to each other army. 1/2 is hostile, 3/4 is neutral and 5/6 is friendly. Where anomalous results occur (e.g. one army is friendly to another and the other is hostile to the first, both results are adjusted towards neutral). These numbers determine what you must roll over to attack another nation or under to provide an allied contingent. When checking to see who a nation will attack, always start with the worst relationship. Friendly nations may roll to see if they are allowed to pass through each other's territory. Relationships can change with time.

In addition to the diplomacy rules, I also rate generals according to a system for non-player generals found on the Fanaticus site. This involves rolling to see if they are rash, incompetent, competent, etc, and will decide when a general will try to invade another. E.g. a rash general will always try to invade another nation (ie test for it), even if it means crossing the sea in Spring or Autumn. this can have unfortunate effects, as the Orkney Vikings found in the DBA version of the campaign. In one year they lost their entire army due to poor sailing and being out of supply because of a rash general. When a general dies, you reroll to see what type of general replaces him.

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The Stronghold Rebuilt

Officially a blog about 'Hordes Of The Things', the excellent fast-play fantasy miniatures rules from WRG. But expect minor, and not so minor diversions into other games as well, as my grasshopper-like mind leaps from one cool thing to another.

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